Tag Archives: dot day

Week 2!

Hello Everyone!

Week 2 is in the books! I hope everyone feels a little more settled in their routines and is finding some time to relax this weekend!

Here is a recap of last week!

-We started our new Question of the Day morning routine! Each day a question is posted for the students to answer. It should only take a few minutes to do, but I feel like it might help with developing a morning routine that prepares us for the school day. Before the students start to answer their question they get unpacked and settled. So far…we have been doing better than ANY other class I have taught with bringing the purple Communication Folders (aka Home Reading). Keep up the good work!! FYI-in case your child has not shared it with you…we have filled out our September calendar. Please check it over for important dates and feel free to add anything you think we may have missed OR something that is important for you as a family to remember!

-We are on a roll with The Problim Children! I love it when students ask if I could read for longer or ask me to read for a second time in the same day! There are so many benefits to reading to your child. These kids are NOT too old to be read to. They love it. It is a great opportunity to model what good readers do, to teach/learn new vocabulary and discuss comprehension 🙂

-We are getting the hang of those Number Puzzles! If you are finding the Puzzle Helpers (at home practice) a challenge, please let me know. I’m here to help!

-Back by popular demand….zentangles (images created by repeated patterns)! Each year I attempt to do something different for the Inquiry Log covers and I am outvoted! I am very excited for these projects to be finished. They are all going to be amazing and unique. BUT you’ll have to wait until Meet the Teacher night to see them!!!

New to zentangles? Here are some examples!

-It is International Dot Day today (Saturday!). They say Dot Day is September 15ish…because it is more important to celebrate the message than to celebrate on the actual day! “Just make a mark and see where it takes you”. I love it! We often talk about Dot Day in the form of art, but it can really be about anything! Take a risk, try something new, test out an idea…see what happens!

Dot Day Song

-I attended the Manitoba Nature Summit with Lori on Friday/Saturday. We had the BEST time learning about the importance of outdoor play, free play, even ‘risky’ play. We heard from some excellent keynote speakers and even participated in a mini forest school session. We have so many ideas to bring to Montrose…stay tuned for exciting news!

         

What’s Happening This Week?!

-It’s the Terry Fox Run @Assiniboine Park this Sunday (tomorrow). Registration begins at 8:30 and the walk/run begins at 9:30. Since I am already registered I won’t be there too early, but Hudson and I will be there rain or shine. We’d love to see you there too!!!

-No School on Monday

-We are beginning some common work times with 122 & 126 this week. During these common working times students will be in mixed groupings and may or may not be working in 123 (with em). We really enjoy working together as a 3/4 team and find that the students create a great bond with one another when we use this approach. Each term we change the groupings so the students can work with a variety of other students and teachers too!

-We will finish our zentangles and start another art project as well! Earlier this week I had asked for driftwood for our next project. If you were able to find any, could you please send it in on Tuesday for us? Thanks!!

-On Tuesday we have a special presentation from Ms Mary! Mary is from the Green Action Centre. She will be doing about 8 presentations for us throughout the year. Each presentation has an environmental focus to help us become more aware and more educated to make more environmentally friendly choices! Our first talk will be about Littlerless Lunches!

-The 21 students (7 from each room) that were randomly selected for the farm field trip will be away on Wednesday, September 19. Please dress for the weather and pack a lunch. Again, if your child is not coming to the farm, he/she will be going on a different field trip later this year. Once details have been finalized I will let you know what we will be doing/where we are going! Lori and I are going to the farm with the kids. The rest of the 3/4 students will be doing something fun too…any guesses?!

-Book orders will be submitted on Thursday. Thanks for the orders so far! Once I order it will take 1-2 weeks for the books to arrive. *Is anyone interested in being my book order helper? The task consists of putting together the orders once a month. It is an “at home” job. Let me know if you want to help us out with that!

-Monday, September 24 is Meet the Teacher night! Order forms for pizza were sent home on Friday (with the oldest sibling). I am looking forward to chatting with you whether you are new or returning to the 123 community!

-The Ask Me question is now up! Please let me know via typed or oral comment what you have done to connect with nature this weekend! Haven’t been outside yet?! There is still lots of time 🙂

Until next time,

Danielle

International Dot Day & More!

Hello Everyone!

First, I’d like to share a few things we’ve learned from International Dot Day that took place on September 15-ish!

The Dot is an amazing story written by Peter Reynolds. Click on the link below to check the story out!

The Dot

The message in the book is “to make your mark and see where it takes you”. We talked about what that could mean and as a group have decided that it is about taking risks, trying something new, enjoying the journey and not worrying about whether something is ‘perfect’. It’s about leaving our mark in the world somehow. Sometimes we just need to decide to just do something…and go with it and see where it takes us!

We also came across the Dot Day Song and really fell in love with the melody and the lyrics!

Over 10 000 000 people celebrated Dot Day yesterday…in 169 countries! Isn’t that amazing?!?

Part of our celebration included…

-learning the song and creating some music and representations with Ms V

-making marks with chalk to see what we could create

-starting with one mark on a piece of paper and seeing where that would take us. No erasing…just moving forward! Then we wrote about either our picture or how the story of The Dot has inspired us to reflect and grow

-we each created a dot, cut it into 4 pieces, kept one piece and then took 3 other pieces from our classmates to recreate a new dot. This is a way to represent that we are all here to support, inspire and encourage each other to take risks, try new things and see where it takes us!

  

-then we got to making our mark with some plasticine! These projects went home! I hope you had a chance to talk to your children about why the chose to create what they did!

The theme of The Dot will continue throughout the year because of the important message it represents…for all of us!

*Ask Me…The first Ask Me question of the year came home in the Home Reading Folder yesterday! It reads: Ask Me about International Dot Day! Please have a conversation about Dot Day and then the students can write/draw or do a combination of both about what they’ve shared! Parents-if you have any comments or questions please write them on that page and I will read them when the folders are returned on Tuesday (Reminder: No School On Monday!!). It is very important that students participate in the Ask Me question and that Home Reading folders are brought to school each day.

*What’s Next?

-Book order will be put in on Tuesday. Please send in any September orders on Tuesday!

-Our Words Their Way groups will start on Tuesday. Students have been put into groups with Rooms 122 & 126. Students will work on sorting words and doing activities such as alphabetical order, sentence writing, word definitions, etc. Words Their Way happens on Days 1,3,5 from 10:00-10:30 🙂

-We will be going outside for pays. ed. on Wednesday (Day 6). Please dress for the weather! We will be going outside on most Day 2s and Day 6s!

-In math we are continuing our review of math terminology and examples of patterns and estimation. This week we will focus on reviewing place value and traditional algorithm for addition and subtraction. We will also do another number puzzle…This time as a group to offer another opportunity to review the expectations of how students can show their thinking as they solve questions for the puzzle. I hope you’ve had a chance to check out the “At Home” version of the Number Puzzle book!

-We are loving the adventures of the Fitzgerald-Trout children from our current read aloud! 

We will see how much we can learn about this interesting family this week!

Have a great weekend and upcoming week! Don’t forget that Meet the Teacher is happening on Monday, September 25! Notes regarding dinner will be sent home on Tuesday…along with a special note about an upcoming…what for it…are you ready?!?..FIELD TRIP!!!! Yay!

Until next time,

Danielle